Negativity towards Food Stamps

This election I keep hearing about how awful food stamps are and how they are ruining America. I’m not politically active either way, actually I don’t like anyone. Bring in a sociologist as president! (Then maybe I will get excited about voting)
Anyway, when I was moving back to PA without a full time job, I applied for food stamps. My diet is very different than my family’s, I cannot eat many of the things that they eat regularly.
The funny thing is that even if I get this job with Americorps, I will still be on food stamps. (just another perk of the job!)

Now I am just waiting for someone to say something to me about being on them. I want to be like ‘Yes, I am highly educated and can’t find a job. I save my pennies just like you so I can get gas to go on interviews. Or pay all those ridiculous tolls. If I want to eat and not be sick all the time, I need food stamps.’ Not that I am actually going to say this to anyone, because in reality I do not have to justify myself to anyone, except the government who checks my paychecks.

“Food Stamps” have a bad name. Yes, I do believe there are people out there who take advantage of it (a friend told me a story when she was standing in line and the person behind was bragging about all the food stamps they had left over for the month so they were buying steak for their dog). In our society, we only hear and focus on these people. For every ONE of them there are TEN other people who are not taking advantage and are surviving only due to this aid. However, these are the people you probably do not realize are on food stamps. They are not the ones to parade it. They are buying everything you do, not excess.
In reality, you are not given enough to be lavish. I get $50 a week, which for me is enough because I have been living on nothing and coupons for two years. If I had a child to feed, I can’t imagine how I can feed my child healthy food on that. But it is just me. So thank you food stamps for allowing me to get the foods I need to keep me from getting ill so I can continue to search for employment.